ARTIST STATEMENT: MICHAEL HAMBOUZ is a New York City-based, academically trained artist, born in Niles, Michigan. Hambouz’s current work focuses on a method that he calls “method painting.” In preparation for each piece, he requires subjects to reveal obsessions, muses, and secrets, which he then uses to build preliminary compositional concept sketches with embedded personal symbolism. Collaborating with each subject, he co-art directs a “film set” to shoot photographs to reference for the final painted portrait. Throughout the painting process, he further submerges himself in the life of the subject by studying their biggest influences and listening to their favorite music—a process that brings him closer to the subject, and allows the subject’s hand to guide, subconsciously, each brush stroke and pigment selection.